Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM (58mm filters, 14.1oz/399g, about $370, to get the best price you always need to add it to your cart first). enlarge. I'd get mine at Adorama, Amazon or B&H. My biggest source of support for this free website is when you use those or any of these links when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. It helps me keep adding to this free website when you get your things through these links — but I receive nothing for my efforts if you buy elsewhere. Thanks for your support! Ken.

The Canon 85mm f/1.8 is a great lens. It's inexpensive and works extremely well. In many aspects the 85mm f/1.8 outperforms the exotic special-purpose Canon 85mm f/1.2L II that costs five times as much!

The Canon 85mm f/1.8 is much easier to use than either of the Nikon 85mm f/1.8 AF-D or Nikon 85mm f/1.4 AF-D lenses. To get manual focus at any time, simply grab the ring on the Canon 85mm f1.8. The Nikon 85mm lenses still require a manual switch to get to and from manual focus mode.

Don't worry that you're not paying for an "L" designation. This 85mm f/1.8, like the 100mm f/2.8 Macro, can make much sharper images than most of my other L lenses, like my 14mm f/2.8L, because it's so easy to make a good 85mm fixed lens. In this case, Canon has made an extraordinary 85mm lens.

Good News:

1.) Easy manual focus: just grab the ring at any time.

2.) Instant and accurate focus.

3.) Sharp.

4.) Fast.

5.) Small.

6.) Lightweight.

7.) Inexpensive.

Bad News:

1.) None, if you get accurate focus on your sample of camera. Go get one, unless the simiar 100mm f/2 USM is more to your taste..

The 85mm f/1.8 EF USM is a handy, small, easy to use and very high performance lens. I prefer it to the $2,000 Canon 85mm f/1.2L II because this f/1.8 is smaller, lighter, focuses faster, focuses closer, has less flare and has the same sharpness.

At its low price, the 85mm f/1.8 EF is a no-brainer. If you think you want it, just get it. It performs excellently.

Canon 85mm f/1.8 at f/1.8. The slight magenta halo on the specular highlight isn't a fringe so much as an artifact from imperfect focus.

Canon 85mm f/1.8 at f/2.8. Lenses don't get much better than this, as you'll see below.

Canon 85mm f/1.8 at f/4. Looks as perfect as f/2.8.

Canon 85mm f/1.8 at f/5.6. Looks as perfect as f/2.8.

You will see a tiny loss of sharpness at the very, very far corner at the larger apertures, but remember that if you printed the entire image at this magnification you'd have a 44" (110cm) wide print. If you need that last millimeter sharper at f/2, then drop two grand for the Canon 85mm f/1.2L II which is sharper there.

Like most longer lenses, fat filters are no problem. I had to stack filters 19.5mm thick until they caused any visible effect on a full frame camera. On a smaller format camera you could stack even more (see crop factor).

Don't worry: I never saw any ghosts with any real image worth photographing. This example is unrealistic: it's deliberately contrived to show ghosts. In real photography you'd have used 5 stops less exposure to retain the sky.

The Canon 85mm f/1.8 USM's serial number is laser-engraved in black-on-black on the plastic on the back of the lens mount. It's opposite (180 degrees) from the electronic contacts. It goes inside a camera when mounted.

Sharpness is perfect, except for the very farthest edges on a full-frame camera at very large apertures. Even then, it's very good. You've already seen examples the Canon 85mm f/1.8's excellent corner sharpness above under Color Fringes.

Crop at 100% from Canon 85mm f/1.8 at f/1.8. This is absolutely excellent! High contrast, sharp, no spherical aberration, accurate focus, etc., all wide open at f/1.8. I wish every lens was this good. If you made a print of the complete image at this magnification it would be 44" (110cm) wide.

Crop at 100% from Canon 85mm f/1.8 at f/2.8. This looks the same as f/1.8, which shows you how good this lens really is.

Crop at 100% from Canon 85mm f/1.8 at f/4. Same as f/1.8t, or maybe slightly less due to diffraction. If a lens is diffraction limited at f/5.6, it's essentially perfect.

Crop at 100% from Canon 85mm f/1.8 at f/5.6. Excellent lenses are boring to review: again this is the same as at f/1.8. Any other lens would have been much softer or defocused at f/1.8.

The Canon 85mm f/1.8 has NO image stabilization. For curiosity's sake I measured the slowest speeds at which I could hand hold it. Read Why IS is Important to understand what these ratings mean.

This is the percentage of sharp shots that I get at each speed.

1/4

1/8

1/15

1/30

1/60

1/125

XTi

0

0

20

75

80

100

5D

0

15

50

75

80

100

It appears that I can get 50% of my shots perfectly sharp at 1/15 on my 5D and at 1/25 on my XTi.

"Marketing Stops Improvement" isn't comparing the speed I can use from IS OFF to IS ON, but instead comparing the speed I can use to the old-wives-tale speed of 1/focal length.

Slowest Speed

Marketing
Stops Improvement

5D

1/15

2.5

XTi

1/25

1.75

Thus the Canon 85mm f/1.8 has two stops of IS improvement, even without IS! This is called Lying with Statistics, and that's par for the course for marketing departments.

TIP: In dim light, fire several shots in the continuous shutter mode and pick the sharpest later. Blur is a random event, so if you fire enough shots, you'll eventually get a sharp one even at slow speeds!

The Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM is an easy lens to recommend. It's much better than you expect, so if you're reading this because you think you want one, then just go get one. You'll love it!

The only things the five-times as expensive Canon 85mm f/1.2L II does better is lighten your wallet, fatten the weight hanging around your neck and it's a little sharper in the far corners, full frame, wide open.

The f/1.8 focuses much faster and easier, and is an all-around more satisfying lens than the f/1.2. The f/1.2 is for weird things like astronomy where you absolutely, positively need f/1.2.

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